The data from this study displays the complexity of the varicella-zoster virus (VZV) transcriptome architecture. VZV causes varicella and reactivates later in life to cause herpes zoster. The VZV genome is known to produce multitudes of overlapping transcripts and distinct open reading frames (ORFs) have been studied as well. However, the architecture of the VZV transcriptome remains unknown. This study examined VZV transcriptome architecture by integrating multiple short-read RNA sequencing approaches with long-read direct RNA sequencing on RNA isolated from VZV-infected cells.

As a result of mapping of transcription start sites, splice junctions, and polyadenylation sites, they identified 136 distinct polyadenylated VZV RNAs that encode canonical ORFs, noncanonical ORFs, and ORF fusions. This dataset contains sequencing data, as well as supplementary data tied to the publication. The supplementary data includes several tables, which contains data for transcription start sites and cleavage and polyadenylation sites identified within the VZV genome, splice sites utilized during VZV transcription, the complete VZV reannotation, overview of sequencing data sets, and database of primers used in the study.